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I’m writing this article in response to a recent post on Steve’s brilliant ‘Bus and Train’ blog.

The post discusses how a franchised system could benefit the passengers of Norfolk and Suffolk, how the operating landscape has developed over the years and how rural and vulnerable passengers are being increasingly left behind by commercial operators.

The talented folks at Reading Buses were very busy over the Christmas period – setting up the new Green Line operations; filling in the gaps in First’s Slough network; and adding many new buses to their fleet. One route to gain new buses was the original Premier route: the Purple 17, which runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The village of Glenridding sits at the southern end of Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District. It’s accessible by Stagecoach’s route 508; the Saturdays only route 208; and the Ullswater Steamer ferry. I opted to travel on route 208 from Keswick, as this bus starts in Carlisle as route 73. These routes offer some of the best views I have ever witnessed – some what impressive given the route is the operated by Solos!

I began my 7 day extravaganza at the tail end of the hottest June week in over 30 years, hotly anticipating basking sunshine and glorious vistas. So confident of hot weather was I that I left my house wearing shorts. Cut to the penultimate day of the trip where it’s raining so hard I had to, sadly, abandon my plans. But that’s enough about my weather woes.

A couple of Wednesday’s ago I went to visit the Stagecoach empire in North Hampshire – including sampling their newly relaunched bus network in Basingstoke, the subject of today’s blog post. https://twitter.com/MangopearUK/status/852125024958001152